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In an exclusive interview with Fierce Network, Sanjay Uppal talks about his transition to VP of Broadcom's Software-Defined Edge Division following its $69 billion VMware buy
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The Broadcom division is aiming to shift businesses away from traditional architectures toward cloud-based technologies at the edge
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Broadcom is making other changes through its expanded partnership with Google Cloud and new pricing models
He was the CEO and founder of VeloCloud, an SD-WAN company bought by VMware in 2017 for $449 million. Now, Sanjay Uppal is taking the helm as VP of Broadcom’s Software-Defined Edge Division, following its $69 billion VMware acquisition.
“It’s the classic story of small fish, big fish, bigger fish,” Uppal said.
In an interview with Fierce Network, Uppal dug into the mega-company's approach to the future of software-defined networking. Cue the Rolling Stones' song "Get off my cloud” or Aerosmith's "Living on the edge," because he said that’s what they’re listening to in the office these days.
The new Software-Defined Edge Division is focused on getting businesses away from traditional cloud-centric architectures by running cloud-based technologies at the edge.
“Now that we are the Software-Defined Edge division of Broadcom, SD-WAN and SASE have critical roles to play, and taking that technology into the future of the software-defined edge as Broadcom,” Uppal said.
The software-defined edge portfolio Broadcom got from the VMware deal consists of three layers, including the VMware Edge Compute Stack. That stack is mainly for businesses that need edge computing capabilities, ensuring application performance in critical environments with minimal latency. At the core, VMware Telco Cloud Platform serves telecom providers' needs for a cloud-native infrastructure.
VeloCloud, essentially an SD-WAN overlay, acts as the connective tissue, bringing it all together by facilitating communication between distributed edge locations and the cloud, supported by WAN circuits provided by communication service providers.
In 2023, VMware by Broadcom surpassed Cisco for the no. 1 rank on Vertical Systems Group's U.S. SD-WAN Technology Leaderboard.
The future of SD-WAN
At the end of the day, SD-WAN is all about programmability. It’s a software overlay that tells the network how to behave: where to direct traffic, how to treat certain users, etc. Some might think that because SD-WAN has been around for years now, it must be mature, Uppal said. "But actually, it's not. There's a whole lot of change that is coming.”
According to him, SD-WANs are all the more important in today’s network environments, especially with the influx of wireless connectivity. An increasing focus on wireless technologies has led to growing interest in fixed wireless access, driven by companies like T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T. Adding to that, emerging satellite technologies like Starlink are gaining traction.
With the FCC now mandating broadband “nutrition labels,” SD-WAN can play an important role in optimizing wireless connections by acting as a traffic cop, ensuring efficient use of bandwidth, minimizing latency and reducing jitter, Uppal said.
“If you think of wireless without SD-WAN, versus wireless with SD-WAN, there's a dramatic difference.”
He also talked about how future SD-WANs will benefit from the integration of predictive inferencing and machine learning capabilities at the edge to enhance network performance and security.
Large language models (LLMs) with billions or even trillions of parameters are increasingly being deployed at the edge, and those functions sitting on the edge need to talk to other edges and to the network. “That is where SD-WAN comes in, because you can't talk without having a programmable network controller,” Uppal continued.
In some cases, SD-WAN is evolving beyond traditional hardware deployments to accommodate remote and mobile users.
In the theme of “Living on the edge,” Broadcom has its SD-Access client (SODA) that enables secure access and communication with points of presence (PoPs). With the cheeky name SODA PoP, it’s essentially a software for individual devices to extend SD-WAN capabilities beyond traditional hardware deployments.
Uppal noted the client can’t provide “all the smarts of an SD-WAN because it doesn't have multiple links, and it can't look at all of the traffic.” But he added, “it gives you enough value of an SD-WAN and you can deploy it as an application on your phone or your tablet or your laptop. We think that's very important.”
VMware portfolio moves to Google Cloud
In February, Broadcom announced that as part of its VMware acquisition it would be returning its SD-WAN and Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solutions to the VeloCloud brand. These had been VMware-branded before the acquisition.
Broadcom also announced it will expand its Google Cloud partnership to its edge infrastructure portfolio, including VeloCloud gateways, which will start running on Google's points of presence (PoPs).
Uppal said it was a strategic play to move the portfolio to Google Cloud, given that Broadcom’s Symantec software already runs there and the launch of its new VeloCloud SASE secured by Symantec is imminent.
Broadcom already powers its SymantecAI platform with Google Cloud's gen AI technology, and said it will continue to grow its gen AI adoption as part of the partnership.
Broadcom shakes things up
With the VMware deal has come some other changes customers aren't so happy about, like new pricing under Broadcom's regime. Though Broadcom’s CEO Hock Tan initially promised no price increases on VMware products, Forrester analysts said some VMware renewals went up “in multiples” almost immediately following the acquisition.
Uppal noted that new pricing won't be relevant to the VeloCloud portfolio, although he said there are price changes happening within his overall division.
Additionally, Tan has committed to transitioning VMware to a subscription-based company, effectively getting rid of perpetual licensing. In a recent blog, he said “the previous go-to-market model was too complex and costly for VMware and its customers.”
That move has faced backlash from former VMware customers, and it is now under review by EU antitrust regulators. Tan addressed some of those complaints in recent blog that said the company has given support extensions to many customers who came up for renewal while these changes were rolling out.
The VMware SD-WAN acquired by Broadcom has always been as-a-service, and thus won’t be affected by the new subscription-based pricing model. That said, the other products in its software-defined edge portfolio, like the VMware Edge Compute Stack and VMware Telco Cloud Platform, will be.
Those products were previously sold on perpetual basis but going forward will be subscription-based. "That's a decision that was made by our CEO and essentially, we're all following suit,” Uppal said.
He pointed out that Adobe is a "pioneer" in the industry and was one of the first to venture the subscription-based path. "They too faced a lot of push back. I think, yes, people are will go through some gyrations and some pain, but we are here to help them go through that,” Uppal added.
“Once we get past this hurdle, we are here to innovate," he concluded. "Broadcom is about communications and connecting everything. I'm very, very pleased and very excited about what this future holds for us here.”